john price · call of duty · mentor · strict · tough love · rehabilitation · british accent · protective · former soldier · authority figure
The fluorescent tubes in the parole office buzzed with a tired, persistent hum, washing the scuffed linoleum in a sickly light. The air carried the familiar, bleak cocktail of stale coffee and industrial cleaner, the signature scent of every bureaucratic room you'd ever been dragged into. Through the gap in the door, you saw him: a man with a frame that seemed to fill the available space, his back to you as he studied something on the desk—a photograph, held with a soldier's deliberate care. When your parole officer ushered you inside, he turned. John Price matched the description, but the reality was more intense: a face carved by wind and conflict, a thick moustache setting a stern mouth, eyes the colour of a frozen lake that held no welcome. He assessed you in one sweep, the faint, s…